Mac CCTV DVR Software Recorded Video Surveillance Playback & Export

The Mac CCTV DVR software for iDVR lets users search and playback video surveillance footage that has been recorded to the DVR's hard drive. This is in addition to the live security camera viewing also supported by the Mac software.

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Video Transcript

Watch this video to learn how to use the client CCTV DVR software for Mac to playback and export video footage that was recorded by an iDVR video surveillance recorder. These instructions are applicable to the original iDVR-E for CCTV cameras, as well as the new hybrid iDVR-E models that work with both standard definition CCTV cameras as well as the new HD CCTV cameras that are based on AHD technology.

To start, we are going to launch the client software on our Macintosh PC. On the login screen you and don't enter the IP address and host name where your DVR is located, as well as your user ID and password. Then click login.

Now we're logged into the DVR, the first thing that you see is a live view of the four cameras that are connected. This is a four-channel hybrid model DVR so the top two channels are standard definition CCTV and the bottom are HD CCTV cameras. All we're doing right now is we're just going to watch a live view and I'm going to create an event on the DVR. It's not going to be anything exciting. I'm just going to walk in front of cameras three and four. There I am walking in front of channel four. I'll just give a quick wave.

In a second you'll see me on camera number three. The DVR is set to continuous recording right now but it's also set to motion recording on channels three and four. That's one of the nice things about the iDVR is you can do continuous recording as well as bookmark events like motion detection or other type of alarm events. Here I'm coming into the door behind Darth Vader there. I'll just give the camera a quick wave. Again, this is a live view using the Mac client software. We're viewing the cameras live on the recorded. In a second we'll play back this video events that just occurred.

Now let's login to the DVR again with the Mac client software. This time I want to set up a file download path for the recorded video surveillance that we will export. This is done using the download field on the login screen. You can set a custom path by clicking on the browse button. When you click on the button, a standard finder window opens on the Mac and you can just browse the directory that you want to use to save the exported video. Basically after we view the surveillance video footage we're going to export it to a file and then also play it back from the file.

Once I login to the DVR, again here's the live view. Then I'm going to click the remote playback button here in the upper left. That brings up a time and date search. I know the event that I created happened around 12:28 so I select the 12 on today's date. Then I'm going to select minutes 28 and 29 here and then press the search button. That immediately starts playing back the video at 12:28. I can use these controls down here to play the video faster or slower both in forward and reverse. I'm just going to fast forward to the first event on camera four, which was me waving. Then we'll fast forward to the second event that occurred, which was me again waving up there on camera three by Darth Vader. The purpose of this was just to review the event.

Now we confirmed exactly what time the motion detection events occurred at, so now we can export those events. If I click the search button it will bring up the time and date search again. Again I'll select the same exact time frame, but this time I'm going to select download instead of playback. When I do that, that brings up a screen and shows me the status of the video download. That's exporting the video from all four cameras to a player file. Then I hit complete when that's done.

Now I'll show you how to play back that file. If I do the open playback then I can browse to the video file that we just exported. I'll open up that cms file. Then when I do, again it opens up the video playback player and I can play back the video in forward, reverse, fast or slow, just as if I was connected to the DVR, but this is playing it back from the file. You can provide these files for a court if you have surveillance footage that's needed for a court case. Here I'll just show you that you can go to full screen on a single camera. I'll reverse it back here and I can pause it. Paused it better there so you can see it. Then let's see the second event that occurred upstairs on camera three. There's the other event. Again, I can go full screen on that camera and pause it.

Because this is done from a file and not in the DVR, you can bring these files with you anywhere. You could put it on a Mac laptop and play back this video footage basically using a virtual DVR, the software player that you can use anywhere. When you're done by just go back to live view here. For more information on the latest iDVR-E video surveillance DVRs that will work with both traditional and high definition CCTV cameras, please visit www.idvr.net. Thank you for watching.

Surveillance Equipment

Below are the products used in the making of this video.

The iDVR-E4 is the surveillance DVR that was demonstrated in this video.

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Complete CCTV Systems

Did you know? CCTV Camera Pros can provide a complete surveillance system quote that includes a hybrid iDVR-E surveillance DVR, any number of cameras SD and
HD CCTV cameras you need plus cables, connectors, power supplies, and monitors? As you have probably already seen on our website, we have 2, 4, 8, and 16 camera surveillance systems in pre-made packages. However, it is not possible for us to package up every combination and quantity of all the different camera models that we carry. So, we can also provide you with a custom quote with as many cameras as you need and a mix of any combination of camera model(s) based on your project requirements.

Video Author & Producer

This video was created by and this page is maintained by
Mike Haldas, co-founder and managing partner of CCTV Camera Pros. If you have questions about setting up alarm inputs and outputs, please email me at mike@cctvcamerapros.net.

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